Elizabeth line passenger thrown to floor when 'confused' driver went through points too fast
Elizabeth line passenger thrown to floor when 'confused' driver went through points too fast
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A passenger was thrown to the floor and others nearly fell over when an Elizabeth line driver became “confused” and went through a set of points too quickly. An investigation found the train, which was travelling from Heathrow airport to Shenfield, passed through the points at 45mph – 20mph more than the maximum safe speed.
The Elizabeth line is the single busiest rail line in the country, and is used for more than 770,000 journeys on a typical weekday. It said: “Although there were no reported injuries, CCTV footage from inside the train shows that the sudden movement resulted in some passengers losing their footing and that at least one passenger fell to the floor.”.
The incident happened at around 8.10am on September 24 last year, just east of Manor Park station in east London. The driver was taking a different route to that planned because of a track circuit failure on the normal route. The RAIB said the incident happened “because the driver became confused about the train’s location after being routed off its booked route.
“As a result, the driver did not reduce the train’s speed to the 25mph limit required over the points.”. The watchdog said the 25mph sign was “incorrectly placed, inconspicuous and dirty” – making it hard for the driver to spot. Visibility problems were compounded by the sign being under a bridge and partially obscured by lineside equipment. It was also “covered in dirt, further reducing its conspicuity and legibility”, the RAIB said.
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